Daily Brew: December 18, 2018

December 18, 2018

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Today's Brew looks back on this year's recall elections + the latest news from Chicago's city council elections   Welcome to the Tuesday, December 18 Brew. Here’s what’s in store for you as you start your day: Local recalls headline Ballotpedia’s year-end recall report Senate votes to reverse IRS donor disclosure rule Chicago update: 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn withdraws challenge to opponent's candidacy Local recalls headline Ballotpedia’s year-end recall report Recall efforts targeting local officials in Michigan, North Dakota, Oregon, and Wisconsin topped Ballotpedia’s list of notable recall efforts in 2018. Ballotpedia covered a total of 206 recall efforts against 299 officials this year. Of the 123 officials whose recalls made it to the ballot, 77 were recalled and 46 survived the attempt. This year’s recall efforts had a success rate of 63 percent. Recall efforts in 2016 and 2017 both saw a success rate of 56 percent. City council officials and school board members drew the most recall petitions in 2018. A total of 93 city council officials and 74 school board members were targeted for recall in 2018. For the first time in three years, a state other than California held the highest number of recall efforts in 2018. Michigan took over the top spot with 65 recall efforts. California (61) and Arizona (27) were second and third in total recall efforts. An example of one recall was in Saugatuck Township, Michigan. Town Clerk Brad Rudich, Town Treasurer Lori Babinski, Town Trustee Douglas Lane, and Town Trustee Roy McIlwaine were targeted for recall due to their vote to reprimand Township Manager Aaron Sheridan instead of removing him. Another township supervisor, Jon Phillips, had accused Sheridan of threatening behavior involving public officials, abusive language, and indecent conduct. Phillips motioned to have Sheridan dismissed as manager, but no other board members seconded the motion. The board then unanimously approved a motion to reprimand Sheridan and include that reprimand in his permanent personnel file. Rudich, Babinski, Lane, and McIlwaine were all successfully recalled. See our full report Senate votes to reverse IRS donor disclosure rule The U.S. Senate voted using the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to disapprove a rule issued by the Treasury Department regarding donor disclosure requirements. Under the new rule, some political nonprofits do not have to list the names and addresses of major donors on annual IRS forms. The rule required those nonprofits to keep that donor information, but not to provide it for the IRS unless requested. Republican Susan Collins of Maine voted with every member of the Democratic caucus to pass the measure disapproving of the rule. The Republican-led U.S. House would have to pass a companion resolution that President Trump would then have to sign in order to negate the disclosure rule. According to Naomi Jagoda, writing for The Hill, House Republicans are not planning to vote on the measure this year and President Trump would likely veto the resolution if it came to his desk. The CRA is a federal law passed in 1996 creating a review period during which Congress, by passing a joint resolution of disapproval that is then signed by the president, can overturn a new federal agency rule. Prior to 2017, the law was successfully used only once, to overturn a rule on ergonomics in the workplace in 2001. In the first four months of his administration, President Donald Trump (R) signed 14 CRA resolutions from Congress undoing a variety of rules issued near the end of Barack Obama's (D) presidency. As of May 2018, the last time the CRA was successfully used, 16 rules have been repealed under President Trump. Learn more→ Chicago update: 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn withdraws challenge to opponent's candidacy Last week we told you about the signature petition challenge story coming from Chicago. In short—an incumbent had filed more challenges to signatures than the candidate had filed to qualify for the ballot. On Saturday, Chicago's 13th Ward Ald. Marty Quinn withdrew his challenge to the candidacy of David Krupa, a DePaul University student running against him. Quinn's legal team had filed 2,796 affidavits from residents revoking their signatures from Krupa's petitions. Krupa had turned in 1,703 signatures—1,093 fewer than the number of revocations filed by Quinn's team. (City council candidates need 473 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot.) Krupa and his election attorney Michael Kasper claimed that the discrepancy was evidence of fraud on the part of Quinn and Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D), who has been 13th Ward Democratic Committeeman since 1969 and co-runs a constituent services office with Quinn. "It was very unethical from the start, and possibly criminal," Krupa said. Quinn's campaign has not commented on the fraud allegation. In a statement about its withdrawal of the signature revocation affidavits, the campaign said, "(Voters) deserve the opportunity to reject him. … No one whose personal conduct and whose extreme agenda so offend the city of Chicago should have the opportunity to hide behind false claims of victimhood, but that’s no doubt what a politician like Mr. Krupa would attempt to do should he be removed from the ballot." Subscribe to The Deep Dish, Ballotpedia's weekly newsletter on Chicago's 2019 elections→